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Rockabilly Swing

The Music and the Dress

 

Rockabilly swing is a division of the original sub-cultural style created by Elvis Presley, Scotty Moore, and Billy Black in the 1954 Memphis recording sessions for Sun Records.  Rockabilly swing is very similar to the original rockabilly style.  However, rockabilly music, with its strong beat, country twang, and sultry rhythms, was slightly simpler.  The off-beat was accented, rather than the down beat, but otherwise, the rhythms were very simple.

At the same time as rockabilly, swing music was sweeping the nation with its popularity.  During this era in the mid-1950’s, some styles blending rockabilly and swing to create a relaxed, twanging song with a swinging dance beat.  Rather than being accented on the off-beat, this music reverted to the typical down beat accent with a swung up beat.  Other elements, like the upright slap bass, continued to prevail, creating rockabilly swing.
  

Rockabilly swing through the ages  Extreme rockabilly swing in Russia

 

Another blend of cultures included the rockabilly swing dress.  Rather than wearing the standard gingham blouses and straight skirts opted for by many rockabilly women, some chose to wear a dress more styled after the swing dress.  These dresses were lower cut and more alluring in their sex appeal.  At the same time, the rockabilly swing dress also had a flared skirt that was much more suited and appropriate for dancing to the new rockabilly swing music.

Rockabilly swing was one way to popularize a less well known form of music like rockabilly and attempt to keep it from floundering completely with the untimely death of two of its most popular artists, Buddy Holly and Ritchie Valens, in a plane crash in 1959.  Although never becoming as main stream as regular swing music, rockabilly swing does hold its place in history, and, along with standard rockabilly hits, has influenced many genres of music today.

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